furious

[sweetblackkitten]

i decided to vent a little here b/c you guys should be able to understand...

i went to the doctor today. I made the appointment 4 months ago. yes, 4 months. I rely on government subsidized health care. it isnt free, but much reduced. so it takes forever to get appointments.

at some point in 2010 the right side of my throat felt like it was beginning to close up. Ive had swollen lymph nodes for the last few years, and even a CAT scan in '09, which came back fine.

i smoked and partied for 18 years. this plus the swollen nodes, pain, and narrowing throat...yes i have been terrified about cancer. everyday.

i broke down crying when i was trying to explain this all to the doctor.

he felt my neck and says i am fine. and that i need to see a shrink for anxiety issues. he diagnosed me w generalized anxiety disorder. EXCUSE ME??

he did order a cbc and thyroid.

i will be graduating in may with a BA in psychology. he did not properly evaluate me to make that diagnosis. no way no how. a 15 minute discussion DOES NOT replace methodologies in place to handle mental disorders!

i am just so mad right now. i cant even enjoy the fact that he doesnt think i have cancer, b/c i feel like i have been slighted. how dare i worry about cancer after 18 years of smoking right? RIGHT? and murphys law being what it is...he better not have just jinxed my test results...

we are told smoking equals cancer. we are told early detection is key to surviving cancer. you let your throat start closing up and wait 4 months to see a damn doctor and tell me how anxious YOU are!

(btw, my throat seems to be healing since i quit analogs and started vaping. i have been vaping 5 weeks)

GGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

i might have to write his boss...not that it would do any good...

 

[sweetblackkitten]

i work full time and went back to school last fall...gee, i have NO REASON to be stressed out right? i must have a MENTAL PROBLEM...


THIS IS EXACTLY WHY GENERAL PRACTITIONERS NEED TO LEAVE THE PSYCH STUFF ALONE!

 

[Kimmy]

Doctors notoriously apply that diagnosis without conducting a thourough evaluation. My advice is to not take any anxiety medication he prescribed to you. It does more harm than good & it's a pain to get off of.

I was wrongly diagnosed with depression when I was a teenager....when in reality the reason of my symptoms was due to stress of being a teenager, and partying a lot with substances I shouldn't have been partying with.

Doctors need to stop labeling people with mental disorders without all the facts. It's natural to have some stress & anxiety in our lives.

 

[sweetblackkitten]

oh this is county health care, they dont give you any meds you would ever want to take...he wouldnt even give me any non opiate pain meds for my ocular migraines...i cant wait to have decent health care...

 

[Girl4givn]

Docs can be insensitive sometimes, and a lot of docs are quick to diagnose a psych-related illness. A lot of times, i think that's just because they don't know what's going on. I went to a doc about a year ago, could barely walk anymore, but I transcribe full-time and was working a lot of OT. I was in SOOOO much pain I thought I was going to die. He said, "Guess you need to try to start getting up and moving around more, huh?" That was all I got. Well, that AND advice to quit smoking. Ha!

If it persists, I would make an issue out of it. Show up at the ER and tell them you're not leaving until someone figures out what's wrong with you.

On the flip side, don't fret about the cancer. The worry CAN make you sick. I smoked for 27 years, drank quite a few of those years too. I sort of got to the point where I was having chest pain daily, and worried constantly that I was about to drop dead from my smoking habit. It made me a wreck. If you're vaping now, take a deep breath, look at today as the beginning of your new life, and try to realize that your lungs have begun to heal themselves already. All that crap is being filtered out by your liver and kidneys.

Good luck and I really hope you continue to feel better. Two weeks of vaping has made an incredible difference in my life - I don't think I could ever go back!

 

[Cail]

While he didn't handle this in the right way he did do the right thing. He suspected you might have an anxiety issue and suggested you go to a specialist. I totally understand being upset about this but you have to remember, even while working on a BA in psychology you have more knowledge of psychology than he likely does. I much prefer to see a doctor telling a patient to go to a psychologist than just doling out psych meds. I imagine it's a hard position to be in as a GP, you suspect someone has a psychological condition. You can't just say I think you should go see a psychologist without giving an indication why. At the same time you don't REALLY have the training to do a proper diagnosis.

A lot of doctors do seem to use the psych thing basically to get rid of patients though. Had a doctor send me to a psychologist after several visits (he thought I was imagining symptoms). Turns out a year later I finally was diagnosed with lyme disease.

Either way, he probably should have been more understanding since we've been programmed over our lives to KNOW we're getting cancer. Can't go to a doctor, smoke in public, or watch tv without hearing about how we're going to die of cancer. It's only natural to be anxious about it.

 

[tinlizzie]

Doctors can be frustrating.... My mom is dealing with cancer and a lot of the time the doctors don't seemed fazed and they don't seem to be taking care of things as quickly as we would like them to. Overall though worrying isn't good. I have anxiety issues and I know when I stress it does a number on my body. I know during high stress times or frustration I do feel sick my throat and head will hurt and I just have general drained and icky feeling. I am learning just to breathe and relax as much as I can. Take a couple seconds walk away from everything and come together mentally and physically as crazy and wacky as that sounds it helps.

 

[thewomenfolk]

Regular doctors don't know any more about psychological issues than psychologists/psychiatrists do. Whereas a good counselor would try to get to the heart of a problem and cure it, today everyone is diagnosed as "Bipolar" and sent home with lots of drugs, hoping to cover up the problem. Sadly, then you're left with the same problem and a fuzzy mind. And in America today, heaven forbid that we call evil...evil. So they can't advise people to deal with or stop doing the evil things that are the cause of their anxiety/depression. So all that's left is to throw a lot of drugs at these people. No help, no cure, and just lots of money for the docs and drug companies. At least somebody benefits from all this misery, right?

 

[fallon74]

That story really pisses me off how dare he make that assumption after talking to you 15 min. Sounds like he's just blowing you off maybe it's time to find a new doctor someone who will actually listen to you.